13. Trashcan Sinatras – In The Music

I have Gideon Coe to thank for this. In amongst all of this ‘blah blah of the decade’ list making, he probably deserves a nod for the best radio presence of the last decade. His work on 6music, firstly in the mornings and latterly at night, has been consistently excellent and he is one of those presenters whose enthusiasm for the music is truly contagious. He is hugely personable, engagingly intelligently and archly humorous. On top of all of this, he plays some bloody marvellous tunes. In the early days of his night time show, he played ‘How Can I Apply…?’ by Trashcan Sinatras a few songs from the end of his programme and it had me transfixed. What was this fantastic song? And, once I found out it had come out in 1996, I was sat wondering how such a perfect pop tune had passed me by for so long.

It didn’t take me long to rectify the situation and, before long, their entire discography was sat on my shelves, being enjoyed in almost equal measure. Having mentioned Teenage Fanclub in the Finn Brothers piece, I’m going to have to do it again here. The Scottish accents make the comparison even easier, but it is once again the case that the two acts have plenty in common, both being remarkably adept at the mid-paced guitar tune with gentle but emotive vocals. If you like one, you surely must like the other. ‘Weightlifting’ and ‘In The Music’ were the only two studio albums from Trashcan Sinatras in this decade and the former is another record which was in the running for a place in this list. It was, however, nudged out of the way by this increasingly spectacular meditation of life, love and loss.

The Trashcan Sinatras formula is essentially, sugary-sweet vocals, plenty of jangle and hooky choruses. It’s been that was for the best part of twenty years and it still works as well now as it ever has done. The album opens with ‘People’, which is reasonably representative of the album as a whole, but it scales remarkable heights with ‘Should I Pray’ and ‘I Wish You’d Met Her’ which can make a grown man well up, so delicately beautiful are their choruses. Not being available on Spotify, I’m forced to find alternative ways to foist this marvellous music upon you, so here’s some YouTube-age.

I’m assuming that this is the moment where you think, “Mmmmmm, I’ll have me some of that.” In which case, well done, you’re a thoroughly splendid person. Treat yourself to the spangly and lovely limited edition – with bonus tracks here or the run of the mill ten track digipack here.